Bangert: Shuttered St. Joseph's College: We blew it by selling hall of fame plaques

‘We’re here to own up,’ after being called out for selling hall of fame plaques to raise money to revive the shuttered liberal arts college

Liquidation signs line Drexel Road, the entrance to Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer. The college, which closed after the 2016-17 school year, is selling nearly everything as it continues the process of shuttering the campus.(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

“Small thing? Wait a minute,” Hogan, vice president for advancement for St. Joe’s Phoenix Project, said Thursday. “This was a big thing. It was just done the wrong way.”

Hogan paused during an afternoon of calling St. Joe’s hall of famers with offers of apologies, refunds and, in at least one case, a stop by the Wagon Wheel Bar and Grill just down U.S. 231 from the nearly abandoned campus in Rensselaer.

“I get why this mattered to so many people,” said Hogan, a 1974 St. Joe’s grad, as well as former basketball coach and athletic director. “We’re here to own up.”

For much of the summer, liquidation companies hired by St. Joe’s have been selling off the furniture, classroom desks, kitchen equipment, band instruments and just about everything else it took to run a campus with 900 students and 200 staff and faculty members. That followed a February decision by St. Joe’s trustees to temporarily suspend operations at the 125-year-old college after the spring 2017 semester.

The money raised at the sale – which basically has been an ongoing and unsentimental garage sale scheduled to continue for the next six weeks in the Hanson Recreation Center gym – is going to what St. Joe’s dubbed the Phoenix Project.

Cornell "Cork" Atkinson pries his Saint Joseph's College sports Hall of Fame plaque from a wall of the Hanson Recreation Center on Monday, Oct. 9. The school, which temporarily suspended operations after the spring 2017 semester, is liquidating many of its assets. This week, hall of famers found out their plaques were going for $20 a piece.(Photo: Shay Atkinson)

The Phoenix team includes a handful of administrators and staffers charged with coming up with a concept for a future for St. Joe’s by June 2019. The goal: A distinct and sustainable higher education niche, in line with the school’s Catholic mission, for the next iteration of St. Joe’s.

But alumni, already agitated and lost over the sudden disappearance of the St. Joe’s they knew, have been crying foul over any piece of St. Joe’s history that winds up for sale.

Of particular outrage was a sign next to rows of photos preserved in wood and arranged on a fieldhouse hallway wall: “Plaques $20. Family members only.”

In his letter, Hogan said St. Joe’s had tagged a number of items off-limits from the sale – campus benches that were tributes to St. Joe’s alumni and professors, the school’s national championship trophy and the Administration Building bell and other things “that cannot be replaced.”

Hogan said the Hall of Fame plaques, a tradition he said he started during his time as athletic director in the 1980s, should have been left alone. He said that “there was a miscommunication.” Whose miscommunication – the school’s, the liquidation company’s or someone else – wasn’t spelled out.

“We’re all kind of in a learning process on this,” Hogan said. “I think sometimes things slip through the cracks, unfortunately.”

On Thursday, Hogan was offering refunds to those who had come to campus to pry their likenesses off the wall display and a promise to set the others aside for anyone who wanted theirs. He also said the plan was to create a more modern-looking display if and when St. Joe’s re-opens.

Deren Wilder, a track and field All-American in the early-‘90s, said he was still skeptical, calling the situation at St. Joe’s “a circus” and “an absolute joke.” He had someone get his plaque from the wall last week.

His response to the letter: “Keep the money you needed so … desperately.”

The campus of Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017. The college is suspending operations at the end of the semester due to financial issues.(Photo: Meghan Holden/Journal & Courier)

Hogan reached out Thursday to Cornell “Cork” Atkinson, captain of the 1972 St. Joe’s football team that won the Indiana Collegiate Conference championship, according to Atkinson’s son, Shay. Atkinson was featured this week in the J&C after driving from his Gas City home on Monday to pay $23.50 for the right to take his plaque off the wall with a crowbar.

“Dad said (Hogan) apologized profusely and that it was never his intention for that to happen,” Shay Atkinson said. He said Hogan offered a stop at the Wagon Wheel, too. “I think it’s very timely and convenient that they responded after the article. … I’m really pleased that this worked out.”

Elysse Hillyer Ruggles, a 2012 St. Joe’s grad, started Involved for Life, a Facebook page that first was used to share information as the school was in the midst of closing and now serves as a home base for alums.

“One of the most painful and difficult things about the closure of the school back in the spring was that there was no communication at all, not even to the staff and faculty, about what was happening,” Ruggles said. “So I am glad that they are trying to be more open with the (St. Joe’s) community now. However, I hope that any further issues are taken care of a little more swiftly. We’ve had a long time to stew over the hall of fame plaques, and there is a lot of anger that I don’t think will go away easily.”

Hogan was brought back to St. Joe’s to raise money and raise confidence that the college could bounce back in some fashion. The job of winning back hearts, he said, is tough enough – though he paints a picture of optimism amid the disappointment from the alumni he’s met in recent weeks.

Still, getting the details wrong, like selling hall of fame plaques you say you never meant to put on the market, doesn’t make it easier.

“When you go through something as traumatic as what happened Feb. 3, I think it’s fair to say there have been hard feelings, and there have been missteps along the way,” Hogan said. “I’m sure things will come up in the future. But we’ll try to avoid things like this, obviously.”

That will be no small matter for alumni who already figured St. Joe’s has lost its way and is too far gone to be saved.